HI! Obviously, one wants to handle excluders as little as possible. Even a slight bend in the wires can render the device *worse than useless*. I suppose a solar melter is the best plan, but for those of us with less than enough sun, especially in winter, I invented an "electric solar melter". I took an empty deep super, nailed a piece of plywood on it, and mounted four heat lamps. I put the waxy queen excluder on a drip board, and place the heat box over it, with the lamps pointing down. It takes a minute or two to completely clean the excluder. The wax drips into the drip board, which has a hole in the rim to let the wax drip into a bucket. This year I improved it slightly by fastening the box to the drip board with hinges, and I tilted it a little to keep the wax from pooling up. I use this to clean 200 excluders each winter. It requires very little attention. I also wired in a wind-up timer on it so that if I forget about it, it shuts itself off (instead of bursting into flames, which it could do). pb :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::